


The Morning Afterlife

by Cubrey



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Afterlife, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 03:23:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16987185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cubrey/pseuds/Cubrey
Summary: 18 years have passed and the loss of Ash still hurts Eiji. One night Ash visits Eiji in his dreams and lets him stay in the rye field.





	The Morning Afterlife

**Author's Note:**

> This one shot is dedicated to my sister because we played around with the idea of how Eiji would meet Ash again.

It is four a.m. when Eiji turns off his computer after an all-nighter of editing photos. But now he is finally finished and sent them off to have them printed for his next exhibition. It is entitled as “The Beauty and The Beast” and includes pictures of New York’s underworld. But since these pictures were taken by someone who actually learned love in said underworld, they show the beautiful aspects of it like the sunrise over an abandoned building. But now it is four a.m. way past his usual bedtime although he is used to staying up late. His elderly dog Buddy is already sleeping and now it is time for Eiji to hit the bed, too. The Japanese gets up and walks through his apartment in Greenwich Village. Sing is not visiting him that often anymore. To be fair he is married now and a father. Everyone has grown older and moved on to some extent, everyone fell in and out love, got married, divorced, had children, a normal job. There are not many in gangs anymore, some like Sing are still tied to organisations but Alex and Bones for instance have opened their own restaurant in Downtown. Everyone – besides the 38 years old Eiji Okumura.

 

After he has changed, he walks back to the living room. He does so every night that it kind of became a ritual for him. On the ledge is an a5 sized framed picture, which he took 18 years ago. Its title is “Dawn”. He looks at the jade green eyes of the young man in the photo. He knows these eyes far too well and could easily read them and then tell if the human was happy, relaxed, sad, hurt, thoughtful, sulky or tired. How much he liked to stare in those jade green eyes, he loved it when the looks became all chill when the green eyes met Eiji’s. _“You’d be 36 now. I wonder what your life would be like, what our lives would be like… Oh how wish to see your eyes again.”_ he thinks too himself as he pours a glass of Ash’s favourite red wine. It happened to become Eiji’s favourite wine, too. He sits down in an armchair in front of the ledge and stares at “Dawn” for a little while longer and the longer he looks at it, the more pain he feels in his chest. It is not really hurting, it is more like an enormous pressure, so enormous that he has struggles to breathe.

 

After he finished his usual glass of wine he takes one final look in those jade green eyes. “<Good night, Ash.>” he says before going to the bedroom. Eiji takes his glasses off, lays them on the nightstand and then goes to bed. He lays on his back and stares at the ceiling for a while. Tonight Eiji has a hard time falling asleep as the pain in his chest is still present. It was never like that before, usually it would fade when Eiji stopped looking at his most loved and hated photo. He rolls over and imagines what it would be like if Ash was here with him. But when he opens his eyes, there is just an empty bed and no blonde man. Eiji has accepted Ash’s death but in some nights – like this one – he begins to feel very lonely. After Ash there was no one else for him. He made no new friends and above all no new loved ones. The more he thinks about their time spent together, the stronger the pain in his chest becomes. He rolls back and closes his eyes, he tries to ignore the ache and to fall asleep at last.

 

And then he begins dreaming. He usually does not and when he does he often wakes up in the middle of the night from nightmares. Those dreams were often the same as if his mind played a memory on repeat. It was right after he arrived in Japan. It was heavily raining when Ibe-san received the call from Max that Ash has died. That was the first time Eiji felt this kind of pain in his chest. But tonight’s dream is so differently calm. He dreams about walking through a rye field, the sun is slowly setting and colours the whole scenery in a nice orange. Everything is so relaxed and calm but still the ache is present. However, suddenly Eiji hears a familiar voice calling his name. As he turns around he sees beautiful jade green eyes. “Ash?” he wonders. Eiji’s vision becomes clearer and now he sees the blonde hair, white shirt, ripped jeans and red chucks. No doubt it is Ash. “What are you doing here?” Eiji asks. Ash still looks like on the day he left, still like an 18 years old young, beautiful man. He smiles “You tell me, it’s your dream after all.” The Ash in his dream is right but Eiji has no clue why he is dreaming about anything different than the day Ash left.

 

“You want me to come back, huh?” Ash asks after a while. Even though Eiji wants to scream _“Yes! I want you to be here with me.”_ he cannot. He just shakes his head because he knows it is impossible. Ash is surprised by Eiji’s reaction, even some kind of hurt. Has he really just accepted Ash’s death on moved on? “Ash? Is there an afterlife?” the Japanese suddenly asks. Ash fondly smiles and says: “This is my afterlife. I’ve been walking through this rye field for the past 18 years now… Shall I show you my favourite spot?” Eiji replies with a smile and follows Ash through the seemingly endless field. He guides Eiji to a tree and tells him that it is his favourite place to rest his spirit. The two of them lay down in the shadow of the branches and while Ash relaxes, the pain in Eiji’s chest grows. “Eiji, what is wrong with you?” Ash asks when he sees that his loved one is in pain. “It’s just a little pressure I feel every now and then.” he tries to play it cool but Ash can easily tell that this is not the case.

 

Ash then lays his arms around the man with the ponytail. “Tell me Eiji, what’s your biggest wish?” he whispers in his ear. There are many things Eiji wishes for. He wants the ache to fade, he wants to feel loved and less lonely but above all… “I’d like to spend more time with you.” he then confesses. “You know, you have to wait some more 40 years until we can be together again.” Ash says with a sad voice. Eiji does not respond to that. He knows Ash is right but still it hurts to accept the truth. Before Eiji realises it tears are already running down his face and then Ash takes a deep breath and says the words he never wanted to say when he meets Eiji in his dreams: “Well… there is a shortcut…” and suddenly Eiji is all ears. He stares at Ash with his big eyes, waiting for Ash to tell him how he can stay with Ash. “I’ll only let you stay with me when you are really ready to leave everything behind.” Without any hesitation Eiji says that he is and so Ash leans forward and kisses Eiji. Eiji feels Ash’s warm lips and that the pain from his chest fades, everything seems easy, light and soft. They are together again.

 

* * *

 

The next morning Sing visits Eiji again. He rings the doorbell but no one opens it. He calls his phone but no one answers it. He grabs in his pocket and takes the spare key that Eiji gave him when he moved to New York. The apartment is silent and Sing can only hear Buddy’s paws on the floor. The dog greets the Chinese and leads him to the bedroom where Eiji lays. He looks calm and has a smile on his face. Sing takes Eiji’s hand but feels no pulse. “So he came to pick you up I guess. I hope you’re happy up there…” he says. Sing wipes a tear out of his face and walks to the living room, sits down on the arm chair and looks at the photo of Ash. “Promise me to take care of him wherever you are now…”   

**Author's Note:**

> I know many of you would like to know how "Old Habits Die Hard" goes on. I try to add another chapter this year, so please bare with me and thank you for your patience.


End file.
